Mr. Seigha Manager is chairman, Niger Delta Nationalities Forum in Lagos. In this interview, he takes a look at the Federal Government’s recent meeting with Niger Delta leaders and lists what the president should do to bring about lasting peace  in the region among others. 

What is your take on the president’s recent move to embrace dialogue as against the earlier anticipated military option?

The dialogue is extremely necessary and even overdue. President Buhari is right in dialoguing with the leaders but for not doing this since 2015, I feel very strongly that he is overwhelmed by the undue pressure and misinformation from either his party or overzealous folks, otherwise as a former head of state, a former oil minister and a former Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) chairman, he should be the most qualified, most guided and most experienced leader to handle the Niger Delta crisis with utmost care.

Mr. Seigha Manager

There is no doubt that crisis in the Niger Delta, no matter how minute it may be, will negatively affect the nation’s economy, unlike the Boko Haram activities which affect mainly the Northeast and largely the people of northern Nigeria. The president is today doing what he should have done since last year. In any case, it is better late than never

What are the expectations of the Niger Delta people from the president?

The people of Niger Delta require from Mr. President due respect as stakeholders in Nigeria without discrimination. We refuse to accept the second class citizen status, which others try to bestow on us. That attitude is visible everywhere from the attitude of the major tribes. They do to us what they would not accept from others. They parade their languages as if we don’t have ours. Instead of appreciating and respecting us for our contributions to nation-building, they rather castigate us as restive, wasteful, overbearing and sometimes, not significant in national inputs.

This is why sometimes, when our youths blow up pipelines, some of the leaders don’t care or buckle. If we are not more important than others, we are certainly as important as others.

How are your people treated as second class citizens?

One major example is the allocation of oil blocs and wells to Nigerians without recourse to the Niger Delta people. The richest woman in Nigeria cum Africa is from the southwest and her source of wealth is oil.

The richest man in Nigeria cum Africa is from the northwest and his wealth is largely tied to oil exploit. The second richest man in Nigeria and fifth in Africa is from the northeast and he is simply an oil magnate. Again, the third richest man in Nigeria and eighth in Africa is still from the northeast and he is also another oil magnate.

Oil bloc allocation is the prerogative of the president of Nigeria at any point in time and when he allocates, until such allocation is changed by law, it remains so. We are grateful to late General Sani Abacha, who created Bayelsa State and allocated oil blocs to three deserving Nigeria citizens from the Southeast, Northeast and South-south (Niger Delta).

These three oil blocs are OPL 244, OPL 245 and OPL 246. OPL 245 was allocated to a Niger Delta citizen and the only one I know to be so. While the other two have enjoyed peace and tranquility in the hands of their owners, that of  the Niger Delta citizen, OPL 245, is akin to a bird standing on a tiny rope. Neither the bird nor the rope has seen peace till date. It is the only oil bloc that every passing regime has poked into simply because the allottee is a Niger Deltan. It is the only oil bloc that has been allocated, cancelled, later returned to the allottee and then is under probe at any given time. All of this is happening because the allottee is from the Niger Delta, yet the owner does not fall in the bracket of rich persons in Nigeria not to talk of Africa. There are other issues like that.

The fact that a Niger Delta is involved and for once in the allocation of oil bloc, should have been enough reason for all the people who have interest in the same oil bloc to desist but because we are looked upon as second class citizens, they are all angling for that singular oil bloc. Even when these oil blocs are domiciled in our backyard where the oil exploration and exploitation activities affect our people, other Nigerians do not think we deserve to own anything relating to oil in the Niger Delta. These are the things that bring restiveness to the Niger Delta. Therefore, I am appealing to Mr. President and even the national assembly members, whom we know that as at today, have constituted committees again and again to probe this particular oil bloc, to please sympathize with us in the Niger Delta and allow us to have some peace. Let the Niger Deltan who owns the oil bloc own it for good, while the president looks into other issues. But, in all of this, we are watching the role of our legislators.

So, what should the president do to solve the militancy problem in the Niger Delta?

The president should look into the issue of amnesty programme and give it everything he can. He should bring in more restive youths into it and pay them their stipend as and when due. Although we talk of the infrastructural development and all sorts of development in Niger Delta, the one that is immediate and can affect the lives of the youth is the amnesty, which is the only successful interventionist programme in Niger Delta. The president should ensure that they are not only trained but counselled at the end of the amnesty programme to be able to fit into the civil society.

As for other interventionist agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Niger Delta Ministry, the president should make up his mind either to fund them properly or scrap them completely. If he is unable for whatever reason to fund the agencies properly, he should scrap them rather than create the impression that there are so many interventionist agencies in the region and that the government has done so much for them even when they are not properly funded.

What do you think about the present economy under the All Progressives Congress-led federal government?

I think the president is doing his best in spite of the fact that things are terribly hard. Some people believe he has not done well but I thank God for the life of former President Goodluck Jonathan. If Jonathan had won the election in 2015, he would have been in a big mess with the current oil price. I doubt if he will not be stoned by Nigerians and even Niger Deltans if the economy could be as bad as it is now. If he had won he would not have left as a great leader that he is today. So, I thank God that he lost the election and it is Buhari that is presently in office and those who believe in him are still hopeful. In any case, I don’t have anything against him because I know what the oil glut has brought upon the country’s economy.